Albania Coach Christian Panucci sees a two-horse Scudetto race between Napoli and Juventus.
The former right-back played for both Roma and Inter, but having watched their match on Sunday night he doesn’t believe they’ll compete with the top two.
“The Champions League puts pressure on,” Panucci explained to Gazzetta dello Sport.
“When so much depends on that you’re afraid of losing, more than having conviction to win. Roma tried though and Inter came out in the second half, it means they have character.
Albania Coach Christian Panucci sees a two-horse Scudetto race between Napoli and Juventus.
The former right-back played for both Roma and Inter, but having watched their match on Sunday night he doesn’t believe they’ll compete with the top two.
“The Champions League puts pressure on,” Panucci explained to Gazzetta dello Sport.
“When so much depends on that you’re afraid of losing, more than having conviction to win. Roma tried though and Inter came out in the second half, it means they have character.
“To aim for the Scudetto though you need consistency, and you can’t have consistency if you’re a team under construction.
“Is it a two-horse race? Yes, I don’t see any other candidates. And even though Napoli play very well, they’ll need to deal with the power, the practicality, the maturity and the experience of Juventus.
“They [Juve] can only lose the Scudetto, with their technical and club values they’re stronger than anyone.
“Let’s not delude ourselves though, at the moment Italian football isn’t at the highest level: very defensive tactics, the result before anything else.
“We can also look to Juventus who are saving our image a little bit because they have the budget to invest, they still have appeal in Europe and like last year they’ll try to win the Scudetto and Champions League.
“They attack, they take the lead, then they retreat to their bunker and counter-attack.
“Look at Napoli, they’re fighting for the Scudetto and yet they went out of the Champions League in the first round.”
Roma could sell Edin Dzeko to Chelsea, and Panucci was asked for his opinion on that potential transfer.
“I was thinking about this recently, maybe if they sell Dzeko now it means they don’t have to sell [Radja] Nainggolan in the summer.
“Of course it’s not a good thing but they’ve invested in [Patrik] Schick and they’ll bet on him. That’s the truth of Roma, to buy they have to sell first.
“That’s why it’s not fair to talk about the Scudetto, you only win the Scudetto if you always invest, so it’s right to talk about the Champions League.”